If the basic challenge of doing a critical Butterfly is to not inadvertently reinscribe the orientalist fantasy, staging Cio-Cio San as a literal doll made every interaction with Pinkerton skincrawlingly creepy.

A problematic opera, as the kids say, but a lot of substance to work with even in the original texts. Hard not to admire turning the Star-Spangled Banner into a leitmotif of avarice and cowardice!